Expectations
by Nagaku Tsuzuku Yami
Summary: Expectations come from anywhere. From strangers. From masters and handlers. From enemies both big and small. From rivals and from lovers. Even from one night flings.


**Title:** Expectation(s)  
><strong>Starring Character:<strong> Wolverine  
><strong>Pairing:<strong> Sabretooth/Wolverine  
><strong>AN:** Hopefully this makes sense lol, finished writing it at 1:22 am and I'm not really one to re-read my work a majority of the time unless I'm extremely bored and there's nothing else to read lol.

Expectations can come from anywhere. They can come from strangers. They can come from masters and handlers. They can come from enemies both big and small. They can come from your rivals and from your lovers. Even from one night flings you happen to come upon at a bar or anywhere else for that matter.

Needlessly said Wolverine wasn't new to expectations of any sort, everyone had expectations of him and hopes. He dealt with people's expectations for him, about him, his entire life. From anyone and everyone he's crossed paths with, and those he didn't cross paths at all.

Complete strangers had expectations of him; they expected him to be a hero, to be a savage, an animal and a killer. All in one.

From those who called themselves his masters and his handlers, they expected him to be Weapon X and to obey mindlessly. Hoped that he would even. He didn't, and he won't. Not ever.

From those who are enemies, they expected him to be a threat and foolishly expected him to die when they got over-confident. Well, they were right about one thing. He was a threat; he just didn't die at their hands. Usually it was the other way around, despite the disapproval of those he worked with.

From those who are his friends to varied extent, they expected him to be a man, to be loyal and good. He was all of those things, most of the time. But sometimes they expected too much out of him, hoped for too much out of him. They never understood how difficult it was to be a man, to not be that animal it would be so easy to give into. They never understood that, they never will. But he wouldn't trade them away nonetheless.

From those who are his rivals, they expected him to give them a challenge in everything. He did, and in spades.

From those who were lovers and are lovers. Their expectations of him varied, they always varied. But all of them expected his complete attention; they usually got it if his memories didn't get in the way.

From his one night flings, they had high expectations of him in one regard. How good he was in bed. And he never disappointed, that much is for sure. He always left them satisfied in whatever it was they wanted, where they wanted and how they wanted it. It never really mattered to him, not with his one night flings anyways. He just didn't hurt them, he drew the line there.

And now he had the freedom of having expectations for himself.

Unfortunately expectations for him were always too high. Always demanding. Always hurtful in the end, or at least it felt that way at the moment as stood in the shower; he owned a small broken apartment in a not so nice part of New York. Blood thinned and ran down the drain, washing away the last evidence of a fight and self harm. Wolverine's been known to do things that would make most cringe and flinch away from. He's a drunk who can't get drunk much to his dismay. He cuts, he takes drugs. Hell he's tried everything and there was little left in the world for him to try.

He's cut down though; he didn't have to do anything that would cause him physical or even emotional harm much anymore. And when he did, he didn't inform anyone. It always made people worry, and that just made him feel either cornered or guilty. He didn't want that.

But today he felt that need, felt it so bad that he couldn't stop his claws from doing what he felt like he wanted to do. An audible snikt nearly made him flinch worse then the pain their emergence caused him. He ignored the running water and the fact that new evidence of his self harm was now washing away.

He expected too much out of himself. And in this situation they expected too much out of him! All of them! The X-Men. Ol' Chuck. Even Sabretooth!

They scold him and judge him when he loses control, when he loses himself to his animal. They never understood how hard it was for him to keep his rage and his animal under control, how much of a conscious decision it was to stay with them when he could run off. How much of a fight it was to not lose himself to the animal. The rage. The bloodlust.

Faintly he wondered if it was because they learnt of his past with Sabretooth? Learnt that it wasn't just filled with hatred and blood? Learnt that there was more to it then that, that it wasn't so simple.

Or was it just how he acts half the time? Wolverine scowled as he stared at his own blood running pink in the bathtub. He was too far entranced with his own bitterness over failed expectations and blood to really notice the extra heartbeat, faster then normal people's heartbeat. Or the sound of light footsteps made by someone big and experienced in stalking. Too caught up with thinking about all the expectations people have of him, and the surprise they always show when he doesn't always live up to those expectations they set for him. Expectations he set for himself.

More cutting. More blood and self anger that threatened to consume him again. He could go berserk; he could lose himself to his rage if he wanted to. But he simply held it off and ignored the pain it caused.

"Enough." A voice said, Wolverine recognized that voice as Sabretooth's. The commanding tone of it was enough to steal Wolverine's attention away from the claws he dug into his own arm and the blood that ran down the drain.

"Mind your own business Creed." Wolverine snarled out, it was rare that he was like this. Rare enough that people forgot how damaged he truly was. And due to his own messed up state at the moment, he didn't realize until too late that he probably said the worse thing. It was proven as he quickly found himself yanked out of the shower and was now flat on his back on a cold floor that contrasted with his warm wet body.

He was restrained, a clothed body as heavy or heavier then his own and clawed hands gripped his wrists and kept them down. Wolverine glared up at his restrainer, Sabretooth glared right back down at him.

"Get off…" Wolverine growled angrily, the metal of his claws clicking against the floor as he struggled. Sabretooth didn't move a muscle; instead Wolverine noted an odd look on his face. One he rarely saw, maybe when they first met sometime after Rose and first started to travel together before everything got complicated and messed up.

"What fucked you up this time runt?" Sabretooth growled down, he was never one to beat around the bush or to be eloquent in any way. Better to be nastily blunt when he wasn't playing mind games or conning some poor sucker.

"Ain't nothin' 'at concerns you." Wolverine snarled though, who he was usually kept him from opening up and spilling his guts like most people these days, even the hardened people. Fortunately for that, his eyes usually spoke volumes when you learnt how to read them. The simple statement of 'you know what'. Sabretooth unfortunately was one of those few who could read him like a book, and that usually ended up being Wolverine's downfall.

Silence and the trapped feeling he was dealing with were the only two things Wolverine really took notice of now, kept eye contact with the contemplating larger feral practically sitting on him. A scoff was the only thing that broke that silence before it truly did become deafening.

"Ya let 'em get too ya too much runt. Too high o' expectations you try to meet." Sabretooth stated nonchalantly despite the seriousness of the situation he stumbled into, and originally he came intending to either fuck or start a fight that would result in another hurt for the runt.

"Ya sayin' I ain't capable o' handlin' things." Wolverine ground out as he struggled slightly underneath Sabretooth who shifted his body with expertise in keeping him pinned down. Wolverine only stopped struggling because he honestly didn't feel like he had the strength emotionally to fight as oddly as it sounded, but it has been known to happen from time to time.

"No, I'm sayin' you set yourself up for failure every time." Sabretooth forced out, almost like he was frustrated at Wolverine for not knowing it.

"I don't…" Wolverine started to snarl out when a louder growl seemed to vibrate through him, it made him cut off any argument he could have made as Sabretooth bent down so that their noses were only inches apart. Wolverine stubbornly glared up at him, it was so tempted to head-butt the man but refrained. The restraining hands on his own wrists were removed, only for Wolverine to quickly notice that his throat was now held tight enough to keep him from moving his head but it was lose enough for Wolverine to breath easier then talking would be.

Nonetheless, Wolverine snarled angrily as his hands came up to grip the wrists of his restrainer. Brief flashes of being restrained in water flew through his mind, gone before it could induce anything close to panic. Gone before the old flight or fight reaction was triggered.

"You are what you are. Ain' no denyin' it and ain't no fightin' it. You ain't like _them_ an' you ain' like _me_. Quite tryin' to be _them_ with _their_ expectations and their views 'n how you're suppose to be. 'cause you ain't." Sabretooth snarled out, and true to his words in his view Wolverine was always trying to be the man, always trying to be the good civil hero as though the X-Idiots were contagious.

"…don't…" Wolverine ground out past the hands on his throat and past his own wounded pride.

"Do." Sabretooth growled out angrily, angry at the temporary weakness in Wolverine, angry at the cause of it and angry at the people who thrust their expectations on the runt.

Wolverine felt the tickle of claws that normally could turn someone into mincemeat, yet they didn't make a scratch. That deafening silence again, that cursed silence. He hated that silence that made things less difficult to ignore, like the truth that unfortunately rang in Sabretooth's blunt words. Blunt words that pretty much spelt out how he always seemed to set his expectations to others and tried to fulfill them, and he tries so hard all the time. And most of the time he meets those expectations and exceeds them, so much in fact that his failures now hit all the harder and led to this situation.

But at least he tried!

"See. That's much better runt." Sabretooth sneered, arrogance dripping back in his voice as he openly mocked Wolverine for needing to be re-centered to some degree.

Wolverine growled to the best of his abilities with hands at his throat. He hated that he on one of his rare situations needed to be helped in some way or form, and hated it even more that it was Sabretooth who did the helping. It wasn't anything personal, just old habits.

An audible snikt was heard, the slicing of flesh and fabric was heard and the fight was on as Sabretooth was forced off of Wolverine. A chuckle, a growl and a purr with the all too clear sign of blood going to be spilt. Other tenants were no doubt going to complain if they didn't know better.

One thing was for sure, at least neither of them had to fulfill any expectations other then making the fight good and giving it their all.


End file.
